New Delhi: Hailing a taxi is proving to be a nerve-racking experience for Pakistanis, one filled with verbal abuse. Users of Bykea, the hugely popular Karachi-based ride hailing and parcel delivery app, started receiving abusive messages cursing Pakistan Tuesday.
As people started venting their fury on social media, with many blaming India, Bykea announced that it was a victim of hackers. The messages abusing Pakistan had many Twitter users saying it was a marketing campaign for India.
“We apologise for the inappropriate messaging sent through Bykea. We can confirm that this was a third party communication tool which got compromised. Our team has restored it,” stated a message from Bykea to all its outraged users. It ended the apology with “Pakistan Zindabad” but the damage had been done. Later, the company said it had fixed the issue.
The hack is concerning as the app and the service is available in multiple Pakistani cities, including Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Wah with nearly 100,000 users.
Pakistani social media users took to Twitter to share what they found surreal. One user joked about how he must have downloaded the wrong app.
While some users deleted the app in anger, others accused Bykea of orchestrating this incident as a marketing hack.
Bykea IT and PR Bykea marketing
Team Team thinking of
The free exposure: pic.twitter.com/BnjZVNB1Tw
— Saltafa (@saltafa) June 13, 2023
Several Pakistani users urged others to remove all personal information from the app, including credit card details.
Bykea is hacked, it's recommend you delete your app and remove your credit/debit cards from app, it might have excess to your contacts and gallery, it's not safe.
— عمر (@Keyb0ardMujahid) June 13, 2023
Among the many conspiracy theories floating, one says that the app was hacked by a disgruntled employee who was perhaps recently fired. But for the most part, Indian hackers are being blamed. This assumption is based on the explicitly anti-Pakistan message sent on the app.
“Bykea app, a popular ride-hailing platform, falls victim to a cyber attack orchestrated by Indian hackers. It’s time to bid farewell to the security team and swiftly hire a team of highly skilled professionals to fortify user data,” said a Twitter user.
Pakistani-English daily Dawn reported that this is not the only disruption Pakistanis had today. Given that a cyclone is brewing along Sindh’s coast, and an earthquake shook up many parts of the country, the breach was just another addition to quite an eventful day in Pakistan.